Blood of the Gods (The Vampire from Hell Part 5)

by Ally Thomas

  I nodded, not knowing where on Earth my home was. It did not matter really. Anywhere with Blick and my friends was fine, I decided.

  When I finally got a chance to speak to J, I tried my best to ignore Zeus’s ongoing complaining. I knew by Zeus’s grumbling that he was not pleased with the conclusion of my Judgment Day trial. The potency from Grace’s blood pills flowed through my veins and I fought very hard not to burst out laughing my ass off. I was free! Truly free! The decision had been made and I was excited to move on. Finally, I could start living, I thought to myself.

  “Is the glow about you because of the news of your engagement?” J asked, teasing me a little.

  “Maybe,” I replied, shyly avoiding his flirtation.

  “Congratulations are in order, for you both,” he said. “We will throw an engagement party for you very soon.”

  “I’m not sure about all of that,” I replied. Blick had wandered off again as he surveyed the area. I wasn’t sure what he was doing. “I’m happy to be alive and awake,” I said to J. “I’m ready to get home and see everyone again.”

  “I agree.” His fangs shown now and then as he spoke. “We’ve been asleep far too long.” His words faded away.

  When I saw J looking over in Zeus’s direction often, I shifted the conversation. I couldn’t get over the fact that he was a vampire like me.

  “It’s weird, isn’t it? Being a vampire now?” I asked him as I got his attention again. I recalled the unique sensations I felt when my father first turned me into a vampire. As my body fought it, I was sick for many weeks.

  “I remember,” he said. “I’m doing okay I think, but at times, the energy raging in my veins is more than I can stand. Do you get that?”

  I laughed and reached for his hand. “I do now. That dragon shift nearly baked my brain! Ha!” Seeing his smirk, I grew serious. “In the beginning, I didn’t. I was extremely ill. May I see your arms?”

  He held his hands out to me. “Your father’s blood poisoned you greatly. Luckily, Michael knew just what to do.”

  “Yes, that was a scary time.” Examining each of his arms, I looked for any signs of scars from the bites I had inflicted on him when we had fought in Max’s bar.

  “They’re all gone,” he replied. “After I came to, I didn’t have them very long.”

  “When did you wake up? Was it here?” I asked.

  “Yes, a few weeks before you did. I think Beelzebub brought me after that night. I don’t know really. After I woke up, hiding as an animal kept my identity safe from the others. Many thought you wouldn’t wake up, but I knew you would. I don’t think I would have made it if you hadn’t bitten me.”

  “What do you mean? I caused this. I turned you. I almost destroyed you, J! I’m so sorry about all of it.”

  J took my hands in his and pulled me close to him. His fangs flashed before my eyes. “Don’t Rayea. You have nothing to be sorry about,” he insisted. “Stephanie had poisoned me. I don’t know how I let her get to me, but I did. Once I tasted her blood, I was hooked. I could not get enough and it drove me insane. She used me as bait to get to you that night. She had convinced me that I could persuade you to join us because you look up to me. Or did. But I attacked you first, remember? Of course, you would fight back. She was counting on that. The bites you gave me? That’s what saved me from going completely dark. It reversed everything. I simply drifted off into sleep.”

  “The healing properties of her blood.” Blick’s deep voice interrupted us.

  Immediately J dropped my hands and stepped away from us. “Blick, hello.”

  “J,” Blick grunted. “Good to have you back.”

  Looking extremely uncomfortable, J forced a smile on his face. “She’s quite a woman.”

  The body language between the two of them wasn’t easy to ignore. Roughly, Blick pulled me into a side hug. His body was rigid with tension.

  Just as I was about to demand they calm down and stop acting like jealous idiots fighting over me, J launched into his business demeanor, a trait of his I was fondly familiar with.

  “Per Mehen’s orders, Beelzebub brought many souls to this place, including celestial beings. She has saved a lot of people here today,” J said to Blick.

  Blick relaxed his arm around me. I hid an eye roll that I meant to direct to J and searched the thinning crowd for Zeus. Having been freed, many humans had left at this point, so I could see what Valeria looked like. The land of my sleeping death was vast and desolate. No trees, flowers, buildings, or structures. Nothing except rocks. Miles and miles of gray rocks leading into tall mountains that reached up to a dark sky. The area of my trial seemed to be the flattest part. I had never seen a more dismal or depressing place in my life.

  As I listened to J and Blick talk, I noticed a few small groups of wolves, dragons, and bears gathering.

  “I was expecting the Ancient Council to be bigger,” Blick commented. “Where are all of them?”

  “Once Rayea released them, they vanished. They may be gods, but they are not idiots. Seeing her as a dragon, raining flames down upon them freaked them out.”

  Glancing back at them, I erupted in laughter. “I’m just a bad ass, aren’t I?”

  J chuckled and ran his fingers through his sandy-brown hair.

  I looked up at Blick and winked at him.

  Lightly he bumped me on the nose with his finger. “Don’t get a big head now.”

  “I won’t,” I replied as I wrapped my arms around his waist. “What’s going on over there?” I asked.

  “Is that Zeus?” J yelled.

  “He’s collapsed. Come on!” Blick agreed.

  An icy chill, similar to what I had felt when Beelzebub had called himself the Ice Man, ran down my spine. I tried to ignore the sensation. It meant doom. But I raced after J and Blick who knelt down to help Zeus. How could a god collapse and go into convulsions? The animals had scattered, remaining a safe distant nearby. Curiosity kept them interested in the unbelievable scene unfolding before us. Interested, but not committed, I thought as I wondered what to do. Was it proper to give a celestial being mouth to mouth if they were foaming at the mouth? Did I have clearance for that? A million insane questions whirled through my head as I stood paralyzed.

  Get them back, Rayea. Now!

  “Move,” I screamed to both J and Blick. “Get away from him!” I yanked at their shoulders, grasping for their shirts, arms, flesh for that matter, anything I could get my hands on. I knew that voice. It was that voice inside my head and it was back. Typhean, the blood god, who had betrayed me, now warned me of impending danger. I had to listen.

  All three of us fell into each other’s arms. It had to be a comical sight. We scrambled to steer clear of Zeus as he twisted and contorted on the flat rock floor before us. When the head of a black snake broke out of Zeus’s chest, all of us flew to our feet in horror. Blood oozed from the gaping wound. I saw Zeus’s eyelids flutter and then close.

  My heart slammed in my chest as I contemplated what to do. Blick and J both stood on each side of me. All of us were frozen in disbelief. This could not be happening, I thought. The black snake continued to grow larger and wider, flowing from Zeus’s dead body as if its tail was nowhere in sight. It seemed to never end.

  “One snake,” I whispered to J and Blick. “We can take care of one snake, right?”

  I couldn’t tell if the snake creature could hear me, but I didn’t say anything after that. Once I had said, ‘one snake,’ the snake’s head divided and became three.

  “We need a plan,” Blick yelled.

  For a moment, the snake’s body increased in height, weaving and swaying twenty or thirty feet above us. It was growing quickly and it was only a matter of time before its head split into more snakes.

  “Let’s shift and run?” J hollered back.

  “Good idea,” Blick agreed.

  In seconds, I saw a flurry of dust, sparks, and electricity fly in front of me. Blick shifted into his werewolf form and J shifted into a m
assive lion. Blick ran in one direction, to the left of the snake creature, and J raced around to its right side.

  Blick and J both ducked and maneuvered around the other snakeheads as each snake dove in to attack one of them. If they stopped for one moment or tried to rush over to help me, they were dead.

  Me? I did not move. I held my ground as the snake’s center head made eye contact with me. Big mistake. I tried to shift into a dragon, and nothing happened. The icy sensation returned. A sickening feeling of fear enveloped me. My eyes widened and my mouth went dry. I could not take my eyes off the snake. Her eyes gleamed at me. The burning fury of my blood racing in my veins died away, freezing the moment I summoned my shift into the animal form. I was powerless to fight. I was powerless to do anything but look upon this gigantic snake creature looming in front of me.

  “I can’t shift,” I screamed. “I can’t move!”

  I swore under my breath. The overwhelming coldness drove its way into my flesh and bones. I couldn’t believe how painful it felt. The snake glared at me, watching my agony. That is when I realized its hypnotic powers were draining my life force.

  Evil is like a snake. You must meet it head on.

  Typhean’s words slammed into my mind.

  Do not let her destroy you.

  Once I felt the weight of ice forming on my hands and arms, I knew I was in trouble. “Help,” I yelled. “Help!” My mouth was the only thing I could still operate. The fear of being incased in ice, imprisoned like my walking skeleton friends had been in their bones mortified me. Was this really going to be the way I went out?

  As soon as my legs flew out from under me, I smashed onto the hard rock floor. Fragments of ice flew around me as I sprang free, but I did not stay still once I could move again. Both Blick and J had slammed into me with their animal forms. I’m not sure who did what exactly. I had no time to figure it out. I rallied and jumped on Blick’s back just as he regained his balance.

  “Get me to its eyes,” I yelled.

  In werewolf form, Blick dashed underneath one snake’s head as it dove at us. I wrapped myself around Blick’s body and dug my fingers into his fur.

  J distracted the other snake and raced pass us just as we approached the end of the snake’s tail. “Climb it,” J called out.

  “The moment I get to its head, I want you to bail off. Okay?”

  “Like Hell, woman!” Blick snapped. “I’m not letting you do this alone!”

  When I heard the enormous thud beneath us, the last thing I wanted to do was look down and see what was going on. It’s not the perfect time to become observant when you’re flying up the back of a huge snake on your fiancée’s back (and he’s a werewolf), so you can gouge out the snake’s eyes. Just saying.

  Another massive thud shook the ground underneath us and we fell. I landed on my back, looking up at the dark sky of Valeria above me before I lost consciousness.

  ***

  When I woke up, Blick and J lifted me to my feet. Both were in their human forms again. Each held me by my elbow refusing to let go of me.

  “What happened?” I yelled. I wiggled out of their embraces and glanced around. The rock floor was covered in piles of ash and the air smelled like burnt chicken. My eyes widened. “Did I do that?”

  A quiet voice spoke up as the figure approached us from the lingering smoke and debris. “Dear Rayea, I think we can agree that your shifting powers need some work.”

  I knew whose tutor voice that was before I saw him. Typhean. “Back from the dead, are we?”

  He laughed and waved his hand in front of his face. “Quite.” He bowed to me with the elegance of a fallen king. “And so are you.”

  “It seems Typhean here owes you an apology,” Blick began. “Isn’t that right?”

  “If I recall, you betrayed me when you tortured me for my sister’s pleasure?”

  Typhean nodded.

  The man standing before us did not seem to be the Typhean I knew. He was dashingly handsome with a thick, muscular build, dark eyes, and long shiny black hair that matched his tailored three-piece suit. Gone were his gaunt appearance, his long neck, and long fingers with dragons on the tips of them. This man looked very much human. Ra’s comments surfaced in my mind. The first blood god was a dragon and he was Egyptian. While Ra preferred his dragon form, Typhean enjoyed walking around as a human.

  “Yes, that was the old me. You relieved me of my head and it got me to thinking.”

  A smirk crossed my face as I glanced at Blick and J, who looked like they too were enjoying the humor.

  “Why should I believe you?” I challenged.

  Both Blick and J coughed at my idiotic question. They pointed at the ashes still clinging to the rock floor. “Mehen is no more,” J offered.

  “He saved us, Rayea. The black snake creature. That was Mehen, Typhean’s daughter,” Blick added.

  Impatiently I waved my hand at them. “I know who Mehen is. What do you mean she’s no more?”

  “A gesture of my renewed faith in you, my child. I thought a sacrifice was in order. Mehen has taken things too far. She, your father, and your sister must be stopped. This ends now. She enslaved most of the Ancient Council and turned Zeus into her whipping boy. I’m sorry he’s gone, but I could not save him. You freed humans and gods without even knowing it. I thought it best if I stepped in and plucked this thorn from your bonnet. Mehen deserved a death that only I, being her father, could give her. If I said I was sad she’s gone, it would be a lie.”

  “Thank you,” I said to the blood god. “I regret that I didn’t meet her under better circumstances.”

  Typhean brushed a few ashes off the lapel of his black suit and shuffled his feet. Observing the ground for a few moments as swirls of debris drifted around our feet, he finally looked at me. “I apologize for what I did to you,” he stated. “I know how much Maia, my daughter enjoys your mother’s friendship and I couldn’t live with myself if I let you fall into danger. If you ever need my services again, please ask. I’m only a thought away.”

  He smiled at me and the flash of his long fangs, long fangs like mine that reminded me of the Fanged community I had become a part of. Snakes. Dragons. Gigantic wolves and lions. I felt small in the presence of celestial beings. Was I really a blood god too? Was I really engaged to a wolf god? The facts of my reborn life overwhelmed me.

  Blick and J offered their condolences to Typhean and moved me in the opposite direction away from the blood god who had saved my life, more than once.

  “You will call if you need my help, Rayea?” Typhean asked. “Don’t make me be the one to come to you.”

  Slipping away and making light of the situation was my first thought. Instead, I walked over to him and offered him my hand. “I’ll give my mother your hellos. And if I find my sister, I may very well call upon you. Is that okay?”

  He smiled and pursed his lips together. Delivering a kiss on the top of my hand, I felt one of his long fangs graze the skin. If Typhean was a friend or not, it did not matter. The closer I kept him to me, the quicker I could anticipate his next move.

  “Until we meet again, my child,” he said as he stepped away from us, shifted into an enormous dragon, and flew away.

  Chapter 16

  Lynn’s Notebook

  ***

  “Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.” ~ Albert Camus

  ***

  October 4th. Apartment.

  My life sucks and that is about it. So, I’m writing in my journal until he notices that I’m not paying attention and leaves the room. I know enough about Hitler. Thank you. When will this be over? Will his new friends be here soon? *eye roll*

  Depressed. Boyfriend is depressed again and watching the Military channel again. He’s had six beers, two joints, tons of cigarettes, and now he’s trying some new wine his friend gave him, the friend he won’t tell me about. Will this ever end? Why must I sit with him and be depressed? I thought things were going to be different.
<
br />   Wrong.

  I’m a passive aggressive drunk. We have to drink, even though I don’t drink. Even though I don’t drink, I have to drink with him. Ugh. My life sucks.

  He is not. He is not my family. But he thinks he owns me.

  I am. I am an idiot. I shouldn’t have broken up with Ashton. Really? Ashton Taylor? THE Ashton Taylor? You were dating an actor? A sexy-ass actor?! And you broke up with him?!

  I did.

  I’m an idiot. I know. I’m seeing now that I fucked up.

  My alternatives now?

  Hanging out with Mr. Waste of Space. Or texting dead people who don’t answer. The texts go unanswered! What did I do to deserve this? The paranoia raises its ugly head. I think I need some wine too. You know what? Nope. I don’t think I will. I don’t want to be like him.

  *sigh*

  “Look how cool this bottle is, Lynn!”

  Act interested. *eye roll*

  “Devilish Beasts. That’s amazing. Isn’t it?”

  It’s not a question. Now he’s drunk enough that he’ll tell me what he thinks of the bottle of wine. A laughing skull with a top hat. Bottle, red glass, was wrapped in red paper with pictures of singing skulls, dancing skulls, snakes, and the like. Wine. Dark and fruity. The color of blood.

  *sigh*

  “I’ll be in the other room, if you need me, Steve.”

  “Hey Lynn, what do you say to a woman with two black eyes? Nothing! You've already told her twice.”

  Hysterical laughter.

  Leaves room.

  Later.

  “Hey Lynn, you dumb bitch. The phone is ringing. Get it! Will you?”

  Fucker.

  “Hello.”

  “Lynn?”

  “Yes. Who is this?”

  “It’s me, Ashton. Can you hear me?”

  “Just barely. Where are you? Siberia?”

  “Almost. New Zealand.”

  “Oh.”

  “Who are you talking to?!”

  “Look, Ashton, I have to go. Have a great life, okay?”

  “Lynn, wait. Wait! Don’t hang up.”